A universal assembly for true discernment
Look carefully at your thoughts.
Look deeply at your thoughts.
Look honestly at your thoughts.
What are they bringing to you?
What is the experience they give?
Is this the experience you wish to have?
Are you willing to let go of the thoughts that hurt you?
If not, why not?
What are you holding onto?
~From our Holy Spirit
We have looked at this quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj:
The world you can perceive is a very small world indeed. And it is entirely private. Take it to be a dream and be done with it.
It’s important this quote isn’t misunderstood. It means that we shouldn’t take our life so seriously. We do well to let it come and let it go, as we maintain our true state of constancy.
However, it doesn’t mean that we should deny our experience or avoid our role in life. One who uses teachings such as this quote by Nisargadatta to deny their experience or avoid their role in life is listening to the ego’s interpretation of the teaching. A clear mind faces whatever is here now fully, and then it lets it go as that experience disappears into the past and a new experience comes into the present.
Today’s reading reemphasizes a point made in yesterday’s tip:
The mind resists truth by seeking to understand truth mentally. If you or I are satisfied with mental understanding, the desire to realize truth is quenched. In this satisfaction, the ego wins.
You could say that today’s reading is a call to stop trying to understand truth.
How do we proceed if we let go of trying to understand?
We proceed by following current moment guidance and by practicing the new habits, which purify the mind.
Today’s reading asks us to accept God’s freedom by:
… extending your trust and innocence.
To extend means to spread forth or to enlarge the scope or effect of. It also means to exert oneself to full capacity. So, if we extend our trust and innocence, that means we are making these a bigger part of our way of being.
Trust is “assured reliance on.” In this case, it is assured reliance on the benevolence of the universe and on the current moment’s guidance. Assured means certain and reliance means to be dependent. So, we extend our trust by feeling certain that all is well while being fully dependent on guidance.
Innocence in this case is “lack of knowledge,” which means we do not try to rely on our own thinking. We do not try to understand. We do not try to figure things out. Instead, we are certain that all is well without needing to understand, and we are fully dependent on guidance without trying to figure things out for our self.
One idea that you are invested in
is the idea of who you are.
Your thoughts speak to you of who you are
and what you need in order to be happy.
And yet,
these thoughts are obstacles,
which blind you to what you are.
And they are ideas that teach you
how to have the experience
of not being happy.
~From our Holy Spirit
There are two questions that are really the same question:
What is truth?
What am I?
When these two questions burn in us to the point that nothing else is important, we are getting ready for truth realization.
Today’s reading interprets the parable of The Vineyard and the Tenants. When we read this parable in NTI Mark on Day 50, the vineyard was interpreted as the teaching, and stealing the vineyard was interpreted as identifying with the teaching (also known as fundamentalism). Today’s reading interprets the story differently.
Today’s reading interprets the vineyard as:
… a mind that is shared among God and His creations.
Like consciousness, awareness and soul, “mind” is an elusive term. If you look it up using a few different dictionaries, you will find out that it has many meanings. Although there may be a temptation to try and define exactly what “mind” means in the context of today’s reading, it might be better to let it remain an open question.
Why?
We’ve already seen that one type of resistance is seeking answers to metaphysical questions or questions about enlightenment. The mind resists truth by seeking to understand truth mentally. If you or I are satisfied with mental understanding, the desire to realize truth is quenched. In this satisfaction, the ego wins.
The real purpose of today’s reading is three-fold:
I love the line in today’s reading where the Holy Spirit says, “So whatever I am, you must also be.” Notice the word “whatever” in that sentence. I like to stare at “whatever.” As I look deeply at the word “whatever,” I want to find out what that is—“whatever I am, you must also be.”
Do you want to find out what that is, or are you satisfied with a lie and a dream?
The ego is nothing
except the investment in ideas.
Therefore,
letting go of the ego is nothing more
than letting go of that investment.
~From our Holy Spirit
If you remembered to pay attention yesterday for thoughts of self-concept, it’s possible that you captured a long list of ideas. That list would be incredibly long if we also included everything your mind had to say about other people, about circumstances and about the things in your environment. The mind has a lot to say about everything, and it’s through these thoughts that you derive your concept of yourself, others and the world.
As Nisargadatta Maharaj said:
The world you can perceive is a very small world indeed. And it is entirely private. Take it to be a dream and be done with it.
That teaching is the heart of today’s reading. In fact, today’s reading says:
This is great news for you, if you will accept it. This is the truth that will set you free.
When we take the meaning that our thoughts give to everything seriously, we imprison ourselves. By realizing that those thoughts are valueless and have no meaning, we set ourselves free. It is as simple as that!
The problem is that most people value their thoughts over everything else they think they value. Although their thoughts are the cause of all of their problems and all of their suffering, they prefer their thoughts to the freedom that would be present if thought was disregarded.
Today’s reading interprets a parable called The Parable of the Ten Minas.
After reading the interpretation of the parable in today’s reading, consider giving willingness to see that your thinking is mostly upside-down and therefore, not useful. After you give willingness to see this, stay in the space of that willingness. If you stay in the space of that willingness throughout the day, you will become aware of some of the useless thinking that goes on in your mind. Write down what you see, so it isn’t quickly forgotten. At the end of the day, review your list of meaningless thoughts, and then ask, “Am I willing to release the value I’ve placed on my thinking?”
Self-judgment is an obstacle
that need not be.
When you see the mind
choosing to judge itself,
remember that the mind is defining you,
and then judging what it has defined.
In other words,
it is declaring an idea to be reality,
then judging the idea it has made.
Step back from this process,
and notice this ‘doing’ in the thinking mind.
As you observe this doing,
you observe the mechanics called ‘ego’.
~From our Holy Spirit
Today’s reading is about how our thoughts create a false self-concept. False ideas about who I am are core to the ego. Do you remember this image?
The sense of self-existence comes from mental chatter and how it defines ‘me.’
Today’s reading says:
But these concepts do not tell you who you are. Each and every one of them tells you who you are not. … So if you are to discover the truth of who you are, you must be willing to lay your perception of yourself aside. You must be willing to stop believing that you know who you are.”
Have you ever paid attention to the thoughts in your mind that tell you who you are? There are the usual thoughts, which tell you that you are a man or woman, possibly a parent, a spouse, the child of so-and-so with a particular nationality, etcetera. None of these thoughts are true about you. However, they also aren’t the heart of the self-defining messages that run through your mind throughout the day.
The ideas of self-concept that cement your perception of yourself to the ego are much more subtle than those usual ideas of self-identity, and they whisper into your mind with incredible frequency. Maybe it’s time for you to become aware of those thoughts.
Here are just a few examples:
Today, consider carrying a small notebook around with you, or use your smart phone to capture as many thoughts of self-concept as you can. Make a game out of it. Find out who the mind says you are when you aren’t looking.
O Holy Brother of Mine,
As you come to look upon the ego,
you may at first experience great pain.
Embrace the pain, Holy One.
It is a gift come to awaken you.
Continue to ask to look and see,
that you may see the blindness you have made.
In seeing it, you tire of it.
And you will choose to want it no more.
~From our Holy Spirit
Yesterday we learned that our perception comes from past judgments that are reapplied as meaning. As Nisargadatta told the questioner in I Am That, Conversation #9:
The world you can perceive is a very small world indeed. And it is entirely private.
That’s because the world we each perceive is based on the filter of our individual mind.
Today’s reading says:
Now let’s talk about forgiveness. … Of themselves, the thoughts [in your mind] have no meaning. But based on past learning, learned through judgment, the thoughts seem to have meaning. And so you feel offended or hurt based on what you think you know.
Can you see how your brother has done nothing? Can you see how all meaning that has seemed to result in hurt has come from the filter of your mind?
Let’s look at an example:
Imagine that I am a modern day “super mom.” I am a professional woman with a son. After working all day, I come home and cook dinner, help my son with homework, bathe him and read him a bedtime story. He’s in bed by 8pm. That’s when I pull out my laptop computer and catch up on email. I typically work until my bedtime at 11pm.
On weekends, I buy groceries, clean house, do laundry and take my son to soccer games and piano lessons.
One day, a friend asks me to go to dinner and a movie with her on a Wednesday night. I explain that I can’t, and I tell her everything I have to do each night. She says, “Who are you trying to impress?” I notice a flash of anger, and I snap back, “No one! It just is as it is!”
Fortunately, I notice my upset. That night, after my son is in bed, I skip email, and I journal about my upset with my friend.
Why did I get angry at Jill? Because she implied that my whole life is a farce set up to impress someone.
Did she really say that or is that how I interpreted it? I don’t know for sure why she said what she said. She might have felt rejected and was acting out. My interpretation of her comment is my interpretation of her comment.
Why does the idea that my life ‘is a farce set up to impress someone’ upset me? Because I think there’s a truth there. I think I am trying to impress someone.
Who are you trying to impress? Everyone? No, not really everyone. I am trying to impress everyone, but the real reason I want to impress them is to impress me. If I believe they are impressed, then I can feel good about myself.
So, why is your life so busy? Because I am trying to deny my own belief that I am unworthy by hiding that belief under all of the great things I do.
When this journaling is complete, I see that Jill didn’t hurt me. I was hurt, because of ideas in my mind.
As NTI says:
And then, forgiveness is taking this realization one step further by acknowledging you do not want to be hurt anymore. You acknowledge that the meaning that has hurt you is within the mind. You are the owner or believer in that meaning, and so you are also the one that can let go of any meaning you have applied.
